Albon explains why he held up Leclerc on drying Monaco F1 track

Albon had just switched to slicks while Leclerc had moved to intermediates, and the Williams driver was convinced that he had more pace, and he was thus reluctant to let the Ferrari past.

After a discussion about an early switch to slicks on lap 18 Albon became only the second driver to make the move, following Mick Schumacher a lap earlier.

However he was surprised to be given the hard tyre, saying on the radio as he left the pits, “I didn’t think we were going to go prime. Why are we prime?”

Told it was for mileage he said: “No mate, we spoke about this already.”

Leclerc had stopped for intermediates at the same time and having emerged from the pits he closed in Albon heading into Casino Square.

However the Williams driver didn’t move out of the way and allow himself to be lapped, causing the frustrated Ferrari driver to shout “Come on, what the f*ck!” later in the lap.

Leclerc eventually got past when Albon locked up and went straight on at Ste Devote, having stayed in front for almost a lap.

Albon suggested that he’d been distracted by a radio call asking him to respect the blue flags.

Leclerc lost crucial time, and over the full pit stop sequence as drivers moved to slicks he tumbled from the lead to fourth place.

After the race Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto questioned why neither Albon nor Nicholas Latifi – who spent several corners in front of Carlos Sainz – had been sanctioned.

Asked why he hadn’t moved over earlier Albon insisted that on dry tyres he felt he had the pace with which to stay ahead, perhaps unaware that Leclerc was by now on intermediates and not extreme wets.

“It’s tricky, because basically, we went out on slicks, and we had a massive pace advantage,” he said.

“But it would take three corners to let him past and then I would have been straightaway quick enough to re-overtake him again.

“And you kind of get into a position where I think, in my eyes for both of us,…